


first and greatest apprentice

by Silver_Queen_DoS



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Backstory, Chapter: Three Houses: Explore 2, Conversation Expansion, Gen, Golden Deer Route | Verdant Wind Route, Male Byleth - Freeform, Missing Scene, Talking About Leonie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 14:09:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20779859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silver_Queen_DoS/pseuds/Silver_Queen_DoS
Summary: “Who is Leonie?”“Leonie?” Jeralt repeats, leaning back in his chair. “Yay high, orange hair? I thought you’d been introduced to all the Golden Deer kids before you chose their class.”





	first and greatest apprentice

_The church has changed a lot since my time. Seteth, Hanneman, Manuela, Jeritza, and many of the knights... None of them were around 20 years ago. Have you met Leonie yet? Apparently it was my influence that inspired her to leave her village. Sorry to burden you, but could you watch over her for me? She's the only apprentice I've ever had._

_\- Jeralt;_ Chapter: Three Houses: Explore 2 

* * *

“Who is Leonie?” 

Jeralt glances up as his son enters his office. Byleth comes to stand opposite his desk, arms crossed loosely in front of his chest. 

He’s mastering the professorial look of disapproval already. His class isn’t going to stand a chance. 

“Leonie?” Jeralt repeats, leaning back in his chair. “Yay high, orange hair? I thought you’d been introduced to all the Golden Deer kids before you chose their class.” 

The flat, unimpressed stare Byleth gives him indicates this was _not_ the correct answer. E minus. Negative marks. Failing grade. 

Jeralt can’t help but chuckle. “Take a seat and quit glowering at me, kid.” He waves Byleth towards the chairs. “It was a little surprising to see her; I can’t say I exactly _expected_ to see any familiar faces here. Seems like so much has changed since I was Captain. Seteth, Hanneman, Manuela, Jeritza, and most of the knights... None of them were around 20 years ago.” 

Byleth nods. “But Leonie,” he insists, with all the focus he usually levels at enemies on the battlefield. 

Truthfully, Jeralt can only answer this question because Leonie had stopped by his office and refreshed his memory herself, telling him all about how he’d inspired her. Flattering, but it had clearly made more of an impact on her than it had on him. 

You go to a lot of places as a mercenary, speak to a lot of people, and then move on. Jeralt has never really tried to fight that – it seems even if you _do_ things just keep changing anyway. How _long_ had he been the Captain of the Knights? And look how that had ended. 

“Remember when we went to Sauin Village?” He asks. “Last year? No. The year before that.” 

Or was it the year before _that_? Jeralt frowns in momentary confusion and pulls out his journal. He flicks through the pages looking for mention of Sauin and ends up going back a lot further than he thought. It doesn’t seem that long ago, but time sure does fly. 

“A few years ago,” he corrects, eyes flicking over his sparse notes from the time. “In ’74. There was, hm, a dispute over hunting rights in one of the forests around the village. A lot of poachers stealing game and making things difficult. We were hired by the Count to sort it out.” 

Byleth tilts his head to the side, like he’s thinking and trying to remember it, and then shrugs. Jeralt can’t really tell if he doesn’t _remember_ or if he hadn’t paid enough attention at the time to make note of why they’d been there. Or if it just didn’t stand out, because it hadn’t really been different from many of their other jobs. 

Any of those are equally likely. 

“We were there for most of a season,” Jeralt says. “Leonie’s father was one of the hunters that showed us around. She asked me for some training advice, so I gave her some. Bossy kid.” 

And it’s _definitely_ not that Jeralt is a pushover, or anything. He’s the legendary Blade Breaker, for crying out loud, probably the strongest knight in all of Fodlan. He can resist the pleading of children, any day of the week. 

Byleth curls his fingers around his chin, looking thoughtful. “You never mentioned her,” he says. 

“Didn’t I?” Jeralt tries to cast his mind back but, honestly, he draws a blank too. “You were probably off training by yourself. She used to ambush me at the tavern and pester me until I gave her some pointers; you never came drinking with us.” 

Byleth acknowledges that with a nod. “I could have trained with her,” he says. “You… used to do that… when I was younger.” He frowns, briefly, words uncertain, like he’s not _quite_ sure of the veracity of his information. “You used to get the village kids to train with me.” 

It had been a largely failed attempt at making Byleth socialise with kids his own age - most villages wouldn’t pass up free lessons for their kids, even if most of them would never go on to actually fight anything. Byleth had never seemed to care one way or another about it, and had quickly outpaced anything Jeralt could teach village kids in a day or two. 

There’s something a little heart warming about him mentioning it, though. As if all that effort and worry was appreciated. 

Jeralt laughs. “I wasn’t going to set you on a village girl who was just learning how to hold a lance,” he says in amusement. “You’d have killed her.” 

Byleth gives a shrug that isn’t quite sheepish but doesn’t deny it either. “She calls herself your apprentice.” 

Jeralt shrugs back at him. “Well, why not?” he says, even though it had been nothing as official as that. “I did teach her. And there are worse people who have used my name for worse things than getting into an Officers Academy.” 

The ‘Blade Breaker’ was almost a folk tale, now. A character with over a hundred years of deeds to his story. That was something that Jeralt tried not to really think about that too much. It always seemed to lead to needing a drink or three. 

Byleth goes ‘hn’ and doesn’t seem like he agrees. It’s kind of cute that he’s suddenly feeling possessive, actually, but Jeralt can really only see it leading to bad things. 

“Sorry to burden you,” he says, “but could you watch over her for me? Afterall… she's the only apprentice I've ever had.” 


End file.
